Caroline’s Score: 4.5 Magic Tricks
James Galea’s rollicking Sydney Festival Show is called Poof! Secrets of a Magician but if you think you’re going to learn any real secrets behind his magic tricks, think again. The magic remains a mystery. It’s the inner secrets of James Galea himself that are revealed here in a marvellous part-cabaret, part-stand up comic routine, all-parts magic show. His secrets will have you laughing – possibly laughing-crying – and singing too. Singing the C-word no less. In the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre!
The show was originally slated for the Spiegeltent, a perfect venue for his rowdy, cheeky, (mostly) fast- moving show. The shift to the Drama Theatre feels slightly surreal, especially as the first song, Are All Magicians Gay? (Galea has magic fingers on the piano as well) comes complete with dancing dicks. It’s bawdy, but fun, and gleefully introduces the show’s tone. But the show is not really about magicians, or “Poof! The most wonderful magical word in the world”. It’s about James Galea. And seeing as James is extremely funny, extremely charming, extremely clever, and extremely entertaining, you can’t help but be taken along for the ride. He is so personable that watching his show is like seeing someone you went to school with on the tele (he lives in LA, but he grew up in Rosebery) who’s magically become famous.
There are card tricks – including his famous, much-YouTubed 673 King St routine – some very funny songs, some gentle audience participation (only one of which relies on dazing and confusing the participant), and plenty of sorcery. And then there are the stories, which give the show a wonderful sense of nostalgia and kindness – and hope. Galea’s show is about shining a light on secrets (and yes, words like ‘poof’) so that they lose their dark power. To that end, he shares a hilariously embarrassing story about his most spectacular failed magic routine, which clearly pains him still, nearly 20 years later. Among other things it involves a Dame Edna impersonator, dancing girls, a live duck, a cannon, and a frying-pan flash fire that sets the stage alight. The story is completely and utterly unbelievable. But by the end of the show you will – I guarantee it – believe it.
If you like magicians and illusionists, you will love seeing the tiny glimpse behind the curtain that Galea reveals. If you don’t like magicians and illusionists, you will love hearing (and possibly seeing on the night) the failed tricks that are the fear of even the most experienced magicians. And you will definitely love singing along to All Psychics Are Cunts.
It’s a terrific show. See it, if you can magically arrange to get tickets – it was already booked out on opening night.
Caroline Foreman – Theatre Now
21 – 26 January 2020
Venue: SOH: Drama Theatre
Theatre Company: Sydney Festival
Duration: Approx. 60 Min
Ticket Prices:
$50–$60 + BF
plus booking fee
Tue – Sun 8pm
James Galea
An outrageous cabaret of wizardry, music and comedy that peels back the magician’s curtain.
Master showman James Galea reveals all in a hilarious, confessional adults-only show that poses questions-in-song such as Are All Magicians Gay? and spills the tea on the enigmas of magic and psychics, from the fall-out when chicanery goes wrong to what happens when you know all the secrets and lose touch with the magic in your own life.
With infectious energy, a deft touch with a grand piano and awe-inspiring sleight of hand, actor and magician Galea spearheads a new brand of modern magic show. He’s wowed Ellen DeGeneres and Richard Branson, headlined Hollywood and Las Vegas, starred in ABC TV series Best Trick Ever, and helmed smash-hit magic supergroup Band of Magicians (Sydney Festival 2014).
